From the first trailer on, fans have wanted to know one thing about Matthew Vaughn’s new movie: Who is Agent Argylle? And now that Argylle has hit theaters, we have an answer to whose story the film’s protagonist, author Elly Conway, is writing.
The movie is split between Elly’s reality and the world inside her spy novel series, also named Argylle. During the parts of the movie that depict the novels’ story, Argylle (Henry Cavill) faces off against the bad guys in his life, which includes the reveal that those he thought he could trust at the Directorate, the spy organization he used to work for, are also out to get him. Argylle and Wyatt (John Cena) are fighting against those they thought they could trust, while in the “real” world, Elly (Bryce Dallas Howard) is finding out just how much of her “fictional” story is real.
After meeting a spy named Aidan (Sam Rockwell), Elly comes face to face with a real-life version of the Directorate known as the Division, run by Ritter (Bryan Cranston). Through her own spy adventures with Aidan, she learns that all of Agent Argylle’s missions that she thought she had made up actually took place with a real secret agent.
Through all of this, the real Agent Argylle is out there, but who exactly is it?
Spoilers for Argylle forthcoming and don’t let Elly Conway catch you reading ahead.
What we saw in the promotional lead up to Argylle was the question. But in the actual movie, we get a lot more than just a basic answer. For the most part, Bryce Dallas Howard’s role seemed like a secondary character to Henry Cavill’s Argylle, but throughout the movie, we understand why the promotional team for this movie tried to hide just how important Elly is.
When Elly and Aidan finally make it to a safe house in France, Elly is confronted with a number of things. One, Aidan did say that he wanted to put a bullet in Elly Conway’s head, and two, she can no longer trust even her parents, forcing her to rely on Aidan.
When they get to a safe house (that is also a winery), Elly meets Alfie (Samuel L. Jackson) and learns that even that name, the same as her beloved cat, is rooted in the world of real-life spies. Alfie, who used to work for the CIA, is there to tell Elly the truth about her connection to Agent Argylle: She is Agent Argylle.
When Elly had a skating accident, it was really the Division making her believe that she was a woman named Elly Conway who wanted to be a writer. The reality is, her name was Agent Rachel Kylle, and Elly was just writing Agent R. Kylle’s own life down.
Agent Argylle was the friends we made along the way
The reveal that Elly is actually Rachel Kylle is exciting because it puts a female spy at the front and center of this story. However, things get a little complicated in the end. Just when we think that Rachel’s memories are back and the movie has put a pretty little bow on top of Rachel and Aidan’s love story, we get to meet another man: Henry Cavill with a bad mullet.
Does this mean that the real Agent Argylle was not actually Rachel? Do we have more to see? Who is the Agent Argylle we should be looking out for? All of these questions will, hopefully, be answered in future stories within the Argylle universe. But, for now, the answer to the question is that Agent R. Kylle is, in theory, the real Agent Argylle.
We just don’t know what Henry Cavill was doing with a mullet at the end of the movie.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
